Lunch Breaks: Employers are required to provide hourly employees with a 30 minutes off-the-clock for lunch. Employees must be free to leave the premises for their lunch break.

Breaks: Hourly employee must be given a 10 minute break for every four hours worked.

Mis-classification: Employees must pay hourly employees overtime wages. Employers may not avoid this requirement by paying a fixed salary. For example, a restaurant may not avoid paying a working manager overtime wages by simply paying the manager a salary. If more than half of that manager’s work includes hourly work like waiting tables or working a cash register, overtime wages must be paid.

Vacation Pay: Employers may not adopt a “use-it-or-lose-it” vacation policy. If you accrue 100 hours of vacation in a year, and only use 50 of those hours, the other 50 hours may not be taken back. Employers may, however, cap the number of hours earned before used. Vacation pay must be paid immediately after the employment has ended. Failure to timely pay final and vacation pay can result in penalties owed.

You should contact our office if you believe you have not been paid properly; or may be owed wages.